I also work as a commissioned author, mainly in science education and popular science (ages 8-16).

My research interests span robotics, neuroscience and biomimetics. My principal focus is robot and animal perception. In robotics, I specialize in tactile perception and manipulation with robot arms and hands. In neuroscience, I specialize in models of perceptual decision making based on statistical optimality. Biomimetics links these research areas: robots can test models of biological perception and robot perception can use principles from biology.

News

Nov 2016 (announcement): The Tactile Robotics Team has won the international 2016 Soft Robotics competition for its contribution to soft robotics research, from over 80 teams. More to come soon...

Oct 2016 (announcement): We have 6 Scholarships of £5k available for International Students on the MSc in Robotics for 2016.

Oct 2016 (new PhD student): Kirsty Aquilina has chosen to do her CDT PhD in Tactile Robotics and Control with David Barton and I.

May 2016 (new papers): Luke Cramphorn and I both presented papers at ICRA on Tactile manipulation and Tactile quality control. Ben Ward-Cherrier gave invited presentations on his paper in IEEE Robotics Automation Letters in two workshops.

Sep 2014 (announcement): Welcome to the 24 new students on the MSc in Robotics this year.

Jan 2014: My paper 'State-of-the-art in biomimetics' in Biomimetic and Bioinspiration was the most highly read paper in that journal last year, with more than 10000 reads.

Jan 2014 (announcement): Welcome to the 12 students on the MSc in Robotics.

Jan 2014: I have taken up a Lectureship in the Dept of Engineering Maths at the University of Bristol, affiliated with Bristol Robotics Laboratory, with responsibility as Program Director for their MSc in Robotics.